Labour has sparked a new rift with Donald Trump’s administration after a prominent right-wing commentator was banned from entering the UK.
Eva Vlaardingerbroek had her visa revoked by the Home Office after it deemed her presence not to be “conducive to the public good”.
The 29-year-old is a former member of the Dutch Forum for Democracy political party.
It is yet another rift with Mr Trump’s administration, which continues to put pressure on European leaders over their alleged suppression of free speech.
President Trump’s Secretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers said: “Countries have been banning and restricting visas on opaque, frivolous viewpoint bases for a long time…media and commentators who were silent or approving of these decisions now fault Trump admin policies.”
Ms Vlaardingerbroek had previously spoken at Tommy Robinson’s Unite The Kingdom Rally in London.
She used her platform in September to call for the “remigration” of immigrants and to talk about the “replacement of our people.”
In an interview with The Spectator, she said “I would love to be the new Nigel Farage” as she called for the Netherlands to withdraw from the European Union.
She also played a prominent role in the Dutch farming protests of 2023 against EU environmental measures, also appearing with prominent American conservative commentator Tucker Carlson.
Dutch right-wing political commentator and activist Eva Vlaardingerbroek
|
GETTY
In a post on social media, Ms Vlaardingerbroek linked the decision to her post criticizing Sir Keir Starmer’s action against X and its AI function Grok.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is currently looking to address a backlash over sexualised deepfakes by Grok.
She read the post saying her electronic travel authorisation (ETA), which European citizens need to enter Britain under post-Brexit rules, had been revoked.
A Home Office source told Politico the ETA had been “cancelled for being non-conducive to the public good”.
Eva Vlaardingerbroek speaking at a remigration summit
|
GETTY
Ms Vlaardingerbroek gained the support of Independent Great Yarmouth MP Rupert Lowe, who called the move “disgraceful”.
The Home Office declined to comment when approached by GB News.
Earlier today, the PM said X is taking action to comply with UK law following the row over its AI chatbot Grok.
Sir Keir said news the social media company was taking action on concerns Grok was producing sexualised images of women and children was welcome.
Keir Starmer in the Commons earlier today
|
PAResponding to a question from Labour MP for Milton Keynes Central Emily Darlington, Sir Keir repeated his condemnation of Grok as “disgusting” and “shameful”, and said Ofcom had ministers’ full backing to act if X did not.
He said: “To update the House, I have been informed this morning that X is acting to ensure full compliance with UK law. If so, that is welcome, but we’re not going to back down, and they must act.
“We will take the necessary measures. We will strengthen existing laws and prepare for legislation if it needs to go further, and Ofcom will continue its independent investigation.”
A statement from the PM later added the Government was “keeping a close watch on the situation”.
Grok said last week that lapses in safeguards had resulted in ‘images depicting minors in minimal clothing’ on X | GETTY
After Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir’s official spokesman said he had been responding to “some reports this morning surrounding some of the changes by the platform in terms of the ability to generate images of women.”
Ofcom launched an investigation into X on Monday following mounting concerns over reports Grok was allowing users to manipulate images of women and children to sexualise them.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said the watchdog would have ministers’ full support to take action against X, including effectively banning the platform in the UK, if the company did not make changes.
She condemned the platform’s decision to limit some use of Grok’s image generating function to X’s paying subscribers, saying the platform was “monetising abuse.”
Mr Musk, the site’s billionaire owner, initially claimed the threats were part of an effort to censor X.
On Wednesday, he said he was not aware of “any naked underage images generated by Grok” and claimed the chatbot would “refuse to produce anything illegal” as its “operating principle” is to “obey the laws of any given country or state.”
He added: “There may be times when adversarial hacking of Grok prompts does something unexpected. If that happens, we fix the bug immediately.”
